Emily Franklin

Critically-acclaimed author for adults and young adults

EmilyFranklin

Jenna & Jonah’s Fauxmance

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The biting commentary on “reality” TV and society’s obsession with fame will keep readers laughing, as will all the remembered Jenna & Jonah scenes. Love, American style.

Fans of romance don’t need to look any further than the fauxmance brewing between teen idols Charlie Tracker and Fielding Withers-known on their hit TV show as Jenna and Jonah, next-door neighbors flush with the excitement of first love. But it’s their off-screen relationship that has helped cement their fame, as passionate fans follow their every PDA. They grace the covers of magazines week after week. Their fan club has chapters all over the country. The only problem is their off-screen romance is one big publicity stunt, and Charlie and Fielding can’t stand to be in the same room. Still, it’s a great gig, so even when the cameras stop rolling, the show must go on, and on, and on. . . . Until the pesky paparazzi blow their cover, and Charlie and Fielding must disappear to weather the media storm. It’s not until they’re far off the grid of the Hollywood circuit that they realize that there’s more to each of them than shiny hair and a winning smile.

Reviews

“The biting commentary on “reality” TV and society’s obsession with fame will keep readers laughing, as will all the remembered Jenna & Jonah scenes. Love, American style.”—Kirkus Reviews

“This delightful, funny romance novel based on Much Ado about Nothing, challenges our everyday scripts and false judgments. Readers will not need to know the play to enjoy the plot but may develop an interest in and an appreciation for Shakespeare’s plays and insight.”—VOYA

“While the book certainly plays to fantasies about what it would be like to live a Hannah Montana–style triple life, there’s enough exploration of character and questions about work, success, and relationships here to satisfy fans of more complex romances. Alternating perspectives let readers in on both sides of this rocky but ultimately sweet and satisfying fauxmance turned romance.”—BCCB

The Half-Life of Planets

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Lianna is an aspiring planetary scientist…and also a kissing addict. Hank’s smart, funny, loves music and has Asperger’s…this summer they form an unlikely bond.

Liana is an aspiring planetary scientist… and also a kissing addict. This summer, though, she plans to spend every kissworthy hour in the lab, studying stars. Hank has never been kissed. He’s smart and funny and very socially awkward, because he’s got Asperger’s syndrome. Hank’s plan for the summer is to work at a music store and save enough to buy the Fender Jazzmaster he craves. What neither Liana nor Hank plans for is their fateful meeting… in the women’s bathroom at the hospital. But their star-crossed encounter could be the very best kind.

Nominated for YALSA’s Best Book of the Year

Reviews

“’Attention-grabbing… fine romantic comedy. Liana has a reputation for loving to kiss, and many boys have been the beneficiaries of her passion. It has never taken her beyond locking lips, however, and now she’s experimenting on herself this summer: Can she become a new person and leave her kissing-bandit ways behind? An aspiring scientist doing planetary research, Liana understands planets and their predictable orbits and patterns; it’s people she doesn’t always get. Nor does Hank, a teenager with Asperger’s syndrome who gets music but can’t read social cues. Put them together, telling their stories in alternating first-person narratives, and the result is a story laced with intelligent humor, well-drawn characters—even the secondary ones—and believable situations…readers will find themselves cheering for the proper alignment of these star-crossed lovers.”- Kirkus

“…A smart and unusual romance just about right for fans of John Green.”- Booklist

Tessa Masterson Will Go to Prom

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“Falling for your best friend” gets a makeover in this fresh, funny coming-out story.

Lucas and Tessa’s friendship is the stuff of legend in their small Midwestern town. So it’s no surprise when Lucas finally realizes his feelings for Tessa are more than friendship and he asks her to prom. What no one expected, especially Lucas, was for Tessa to come out as a lesbian instead of accepting his heartfelt invitation. Humiliated and confused, Lucas also feels betrayed that his best friend kept such an important secret from him.

What’s worse is Tessa’s decision to wear a tastefully tailored tuxedo to escort her female crush, sparking a firestorm of controversy. Lucas must decide if he should stand on the sidelines or if he should stand by his friend to make sure that Tessa Masterson will go to prom.

Named to the 2013 Rainbow List

 
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Reviews

“This well-constructed novel is told in alternating chapters by Tessa, a young woman who gathers up the courage to come out of the closet during her senior year, and Lucas, her lifelong best friend. Tessa believes she has dropped sufficient hints about her preferences so Lucas will get the point. When Lucas asks Tessa to the prom through the local supermarket’s twenty-foot illuminated sign, the sting of her refusal is a little hard to take. That incident and the fact that Tessa has asked her girlfriend Josie to the prom quickly become news in the small Indiana town. Lucas’s initial anger is misrepresented as antigay rhetoric, which adds fuel to the fire of bigoted citizens that want to bar Tessa from the dance. The beauty of the novel is how deftly Franklin and Halpin weave in so many unexpected consequences of Tessa’s decision. Lucas feels betrayed more than dismissed, then struggles to correct his initial selfishness. Classmates who could care less about Tessa’s lesbian status blame her for turning their rite of passage into a media spectacle. Tessa’s parents’ family business is threatened by boycotts—by folks who refuse their patronage on principle or just because they do not want to deal with picketers. Tessa, never one for the limelight, is a reluctant poster child for the gay rights movement. It is more than just unfortunate that books about gay and lesbian teens suffer the same discrimination as the people they describe. The large and growing genre no doubt is dismissed by a large population of readers, much like the talented individuals they also dismiss. Franklin and Halpin’s Tessa Masterson Will Go to Prom is an excellent example. This is a novel about hard decisions, unexpected consequences, the meaning of real friendship, and the elusiveness of true love. It is a great story with a delightfully surprising and satisfying conclusion.” – VOYA

“High school seniors Lucas and Tessa have been lifelong friends, but when he asks her to the prom she turns him down, revealing that she is gay and has a girlfriend. Angry at this rejection and that Tessa kept something from him, Lucas betrays Tessa’s secret and even gives a mean interview to the school newspaper (“[O]ur whole Prom is going to be about her instead of being a normal dance”). There are protestors outside Tessa’s parents’ grocery store, the school administration is threatening to expel her, and the school board may cancel the prom. Franklin and Halpin’s third he said/she said collaboration (following Jenna & Josh’s Fauxmance and The Half-Life of Planets) will have readers empathizing both with Lucas’s desire to “make things right” and Tessa’s pain as she deals with hate in the hallways and at home. Lucas’s ultimate “grand gesture” is farfetched, but it’s also a fun release after an emotional story about the struggles gay teens often face and what it means to be a friend.”– Publisher’s Weekly

“This is a great book that explores what can happen to a friendship when it’s tested and the struggles that some people face in modern-day America. The story spreads the message that we must accept everyone in our society. Lucas and Tessa’s friendship journey is especially heartwarming and easy to relate to. The dialogue is much like a real teenager’s and the sarcasm of the characters makes you love them more and more. The cover of the book is also very chic. I hope for more books like this one.”—SCHOOL LIBRARY JOURNAL

It’s a Wonderful Lie

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Who said being in your 20s is easy?

Exciting, funny, heartbreaking original essays about the up-and-down decade. Critically acclaimed female writers pull back the curtain on being twenty-something. Entertaining and enlightening, this anthology speaks honestly about that unique time in life when expectations are not always realized, yet surprises are plentiful and thrilling.

Crush: 26 Real-Life Tales of First Love

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Twenty-six bestselling authors return to the teenage bedrooms, school hallways and college dorms of their youth to share passionate essays of love lost and found and lessons learned along the way.

Whether heartbreaking or hilarious, their soul-baring honesty reminds us to keep reaching for true love wherever we can find it and for as long as it takes. Their intimate reflections will fascinate and move any reader who remembers her first love.

Because I Love Her

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Because I love her: 30 Women Writers on the Mother-Daughter Relationship

This profound and poignant collection highlights some of the best literary writers of our time in an era when the roles of mothers and daughters are constantly being questioned and redefined. Because I Love Her explores the deepest bonds and truths of motherhood by sharing stories and secrets of becoming a mother and grandmother. Ranging from established and bestselling authors to exciting new voices, these women reveal what their mothers taught them, what they in turn hope to impart to their daughters and, finally, what they’ve learned as a bridge between the two.

When I was a Loser

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Who were you as a teenager?

In When I Was a Loser, John McNally, author of the novel America’s Report Card, assembles twenty-five original essays — often hilarious, sometimes tenderhearted, always evocative — about defining moments of high school loserdom. Emily Franklin, Julianna Baggott, Owen King, Johanna Edwards, and many more fresh, talented writers explore their own angst, humiliation, heartache, and other staples of teen life.

Don’t You Forget About Me

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An irresistible read for anyone who came of age in the eighties..or just wishes they did.

No one captured the teen portion of the eighties as poignantly as writer-director John Hughes. Sixteen Candles, The Breakfast Club, Weird Science, Pretty in Pink, Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, and Some Kind of Wonderful are timeless tales of love, angst, longing, and self-discovery that illuminated and assuaged the anxieties of an entire generation. Fondly nostalgic, filled with wit and surprising insights, don’t you forget about me contains original essays from a skillfully chosen crop of novelists and essayists on the films’ far-reaching effects on their own lives — an irresistible read for anyone who came of age in the eighties (or just wishes they did).